Criminal Ideology of TTP in Pakistan

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by its self-proclaimed leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, and by its infamous and ominous title, Fitna-al-Khawarij or (FAK), has firmly established an unprecedented reign of terror throughout the country of Pakistan to the extent even coping with the existing kidnappings and extortions and the brutal coercions that have now been transformed to the peaceful urban settings of Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Criminal Ideology of TTP in Pakistan Horrifying range of this criminal, ideological onslaught has also been revealed in the recent years with credible and verified reports, such as those published in reputable sources such as Dawn.

FAK terror campaign is not just the outwork of confused militants, but rather a mafia style insidious action, based on greed, power, and deliberate destruction of the Pakistani economic and social infrastructure. The establishment of businesses, politicians, professionals, and even religious minorities are getting to be the main targets of this violent plan. Failure to comply with these demands leads to very swift and deadly retribution. Other victims who resist are subjected to horrifying reprisals such as grenades being launched into their offices and domiciles and cold-blooded target assassinate assignments and destruction of personal and business property on purpose. This bloodthirsty protection racket is an alarming development in the history of the Pakistani form of terrorism in which justification of ideology is increasingly turned into a handy soap bubble over organized crime booted by extortion and assassination.

The FAK ideological pretence stands no chance once investigated thoroughly and unveils the primitive mechanics of a brutal criminal mob. Although they claim to be on jihad, the actual picture is much less noble and much more dreadful. Their so-called holy war is more of a mafia with Kalashnikovs, grenades and continuous number of deaths. On one hand, Pakistan is fighting hard to rebuild, reform and stabilize itself against economic challenges and regional pressures, and on the other hand, FAK strives to bomb, extort and sabotage the infrastructure and private sector which forms the backbone of national progress. Their every single extortion demand is not only personal threat of a single businessman but also an attack on the sovereignty, economy and welfare of the country. Whenever these terrorists are chilling with their phone calls in the impregnable safety camps of Kabul and releasing blood on the streets of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, they not only cross interstate borders, but all possible moral and human boundaries. They do not come as ideologues or freedom fighters but as mercenaries of the ugliest kind who use faith not as a spiritual weapon but to make money.

Religious minorities have also been targeted by extortion racket by FAK as it tries to dismantle the precarious fibres of social pluralism in Pakistan. Their insistence on the medieval jizya tax is just a perverted weapon of fear and intimidation. It is not a religious revival rather it is economic terrorism. Those minorities that resist and fail to pay this illegal and un-Islamic tax are dealt with the same brutal measures, the places of worship are attacked, the family threatened, their property destroyed, and in some unfortunate incidences, cold blood murder. Jizya by FAK is a confrontation on the ideological front to reverse the social gains of Pakistan, demolish tolerance and establish sectarian boundaries among the communities.

Not only are such actions crimes to the people and communities, but direct strikes to the notion of a pluralistic and peaceful Pakistan society. they make the concept to be an extortion racket, draining faith of all spiritual and moral value when this mafia claims jizya in the name of jihad.

The scope and audacity of such activities are already questioning the nature of the regional terrorism scene and cross border control and ineffectiveness. The repetitious nature of invocations of Afghan based numbers to deliver threats and extortion payments indicates a transnational aspect of this menace. Even after castigation by the Taliban government of giving haven to anti-Pakistan elements, the fact that the FAK has freedom to operate within Afghanistan is an indication otherwise.

Whenever a person in Kabul calls to threaten a businessman in Karachi, it is a betrayal of diplomatic trusts, violation of neighbourly relations, and a painful reminder of the incomplete business of countering terrorism in the region. It is not an announcement of war by some gang of armed muggers, but of chaos that has established an ideology of chaos that jeopardizes the stability in the entire region. This is a threat that the Pakistani state cannot afford to lose sight of. Each uninterrupted attack of the grenades, every unsolved murder, strengthens the FAK and damages the trust of the population in the power of the state to safeguard the population. Since the decisive confrontation of this threat can endanger not only lives but the economic and political future of the whole Pakistan, as well.

The most sinister aspect of the campaign conducted by FAK is that it is two-pronged in nature; a combination of crime and ideology that is mixed and makes the response of the state a difficult task. FAK does not disguise its extortion as some religious imperative, not because it is driven by some genuine ideology. With this terror-mafia hybrid model, they have created a new type of enemy with all the rationales of faith on their side, bombing in the name of religion, soliciting bribes in the name of the Almighty and proclaiming themselves the champions of rebellion when they are, in fact, racketeered in the most hideous style of the mafia. Their self-proclaimed jihad is a money making venture: the message is simple, either pay or bomb, and there is no possible candid interpretation of any doctrine that can condone these kinds of mob actions. The lie is revealed when their grenade attacks plunge on businesses that just do not want to be blackmailed. They are not religious warriors, they are thugs dressed up as warriors, assassins whose stock is in fear whose gold is blood.